By Cody Willard

Do you own the products you purchase from Apple? Or do they still own them even after you’ve paid good money for the right to “own” an Apple product? CNet news reports that Apple’s filed an application innocently enough called “Systems and Methods for Identifying Unauthorized Users of an Electronic Device.”

And so you might think that these would be systems and methods for people like me who had his iPad stolen out of the bottom of his cart at Whole Foods whose camera systems were later found to have mysteriously not kept the footage of that section of the store during the time in question…but the CNet article pulls some quotes directly from the patent app (not to be confused with an app about patents, which would be a pretty cool app for the US Patent Office to release, no? They could call it a patent app app! But I digress…Oooh, and then someone could create an app full of app apps like the one the from US Patent Office and they could call that an app app app…but I really really digress now, don’t I?).

Anyway, these quotes from Apple’s actual patent filing are full of what I find to be some rather disturbing Big Brother-type concepts:

In some embodiments, an unauthorized user can be detected by comparing the identity of the current user to the identities of authorized users of the electronic device. For example, a photograph of the current user can be taken, a recording of the current user’s voice can be recorded, the heartbeat of the current user can be recorded, or any combination of the above. The photograph, recording, or heartbeat can be compared, respectively, to a photograph, recording, or heartbeat of authorized users of the electronic device to determine whether they match. If they do not match, the current user can be detected as an unauthorized user.

Seriously? So in other words, if you go pay full retail price for an iPhone and you don’t care about the Apple warranty so you “jailbreak” your phone, enabling yourself to take full advantage of any apps and any technologies and any networks that Apple’s chosen to restrict (restrict…ie, control), then Apple’s going to shut your device off. Doesn’t matter that you thought you “OWNED” your iPhone — Apple’s still got the right to do what they want with your phone. They’re applying for patents that will automate the determination if you’re the one using your phone or not.

There’s absolutely no reason for that in any way shape or form that I can come up with for them to do this. I mean, go back to my earlier example about the heartbreaking theft of my own iPad — I called and had the 3G service from AT&T canceled and changed all my passwords, but since I’d stupidly not gotten MobileMe, they couldn’t/wouldn’t track my device down for me using the GPS in the network. They didn’t need a damn heartbeat-measurement device or a Big Brother picture of whoever’s doing whatever he’s doing with my iPad to find out that it’s being used “unauthorized”. They just needed me to tell them. And if I lend my iPhone to somebody for months at a time like I’ve done with one of my MacBook Pro’s that a friend’s had for a year, then Apple might use that technology in the patent they’ve just filed to shut my iPhone off?

Look, Apple’s not stupid and they’re not going to go crazy invading people’s privacy and upsetting their customer base by turning off devices as a policy or anything like that. But Apple’s iPad and iPhones and Motorola’s Droids already have tons of technologies built into them trying to thwart their rightful owners from making their devices more powerful, smarter and more functional. AT&T and Verizon and the carriers control what apps are allowed to be utilized over their networks (Skype, for example, is okay…wait no, it’s not…only on Wifi…unless you the customer want to change that setting…but then the phone’s “jailbreak” controlling technologies might self-destruct your device).

And all these companies better watch their back. Because they’re quickly forgetting the golden rule that got them this far — the endgame of our networks is the total empowerment of the end user.

Because the Internet itself has been built on open standards and the free flow of information, the 1.5bn people on this planet who have access to the web will continuously move to the apps and the places on the net that empower and liberate them the most. We users will constantly (and at an accelerated pace) move away from these companies who exert control and toward those that exert the next phase of empowerment of the consumer. I call this theory “Revolutionomics” and the only constant in technology is the consumer’s relentless drive away from central control and towards empowerment.

Apple and Google are definitely the best positioned for the empowerment of the consumer in the app-world, but if there is any threat to their dominance over the next five to ten years its simply their own business practices and the threat of creative destruction by other companies who remain solely focused on empowering their customers rather than controlling them.

By the way, I’m all about empowering the app consumer at the website I recently launched called, yes, AppConsumer.com. We’ve got very helpful and quickly growing section full of Top 5 Apps Lists and App/Device Guides and all the best news and reviews on the Internet. Empowering, not controlling, see, Apple and Google? Don’t forget what you got here! You can’t stop the revolution anyway, guys.

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About The Cody Word

Cody Willard writes the Revolution Investing investment newsletter for MarketWatch and posts the trades from his personal account at TradingWithCody.com He is the founder of WallStreetAll-Stars.com and the principal of CL Willard Capital. Cody serves as an adjunct professor at Seton Hall University and is on the University of New Mexico Alumni Board. He was an anchor on the Fox Business Network, where he was the co-host of the long-time #1-rated show on the network, Fox Business Happy Hour. Cody, a former hedge fund manager, and his stock picks and economic outlooks have been featured on NBC’s The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, ABC’s 20/20, CBS Evening News, CNBC’s SquawkBox, Jon Stewart’s The Daily Show, as well as in the Financial Times, Wall Street Journal, New York Times, and many other outlets.